Question about breeding parakeet

[Sunnytheparakeet]

I adopted two parakeets from a neighbor. Male and female. There was a breeding box already in the cage and I found out the female had laid an egg! I’m not too familiar with birds as I am a new bird owner (I’m learning quickly). She is on a good diet (seeds, pellets, veggies and mineral block). I just wanted to know if her egg seemed normal? Is it supposed to be that shape?

 

[Laurasea]

Looks normal to me. Thank you for adoption.

 

[Sunnytheparakeet]

Thanks! Also, she’s been in there all day. I’m worried because she isn’t really eating. can I put the mineral block in her nesting box so at least she has some nutrients??

 

[Laurasea]

No don't disturb her. Otherwise I know nothing of breeding keets.... she'll eat when she needs to or the male will feed her ..hope ithers with the knowledge will chime in. On the other hand the world probably doesn't need more parakeets, they are up for re-home all the time..... You need to either let her raise this clutch or remove and boil the eggs then return them till she gives up sitting on them, then remove the nest box to discourage further nesting.....also they might be brother and sister as most people just pick two birds at the same time from the same place....and do you know if she had already been having babies after babies from before? As this is hard on her...I know I'm being blunt, but there is no need to be breeding them, there are fifty in Craigslist near me right now being sold for five dollars to people will will stuff them in a tiny cage and nit care for them correctly. If you want to go ahead with this one batch, please don't keep breeding them
It's sounds like you will care for the two you got very well so thank you for taking them in.

 

[Sunnytheparakeet]

Hi! I completely understand where you’re coming from. To my knowledge, this is her first time laying eggs. My neighbor had gotten them from a pet store a year apart so I don’t think they are siblings. Also, I’m well aware that there are too many keets but the nesting box was already in there and by the time I wanted to remove it there was already an egg in there. Their cage is pretty big so there’s room for more. But I do plan on taking the box away once the babies are all grown. I also hadn’t really known much about keets breeding and I was worried that if I took the box away it may affect her health (depression). It was silly of me and I am keeping a very close eye on them. Thank you for your reply

 

[EllenD]

You do not need to put any food, water, mineral block, etc. inside of the nest-box, she'll come out and eat/drink when she wants to. I'm kind of surprised that she's actually laying on a single egg, usually they don't start laying on a clutch until there are at least 2 eggs laid, usually 3, but either way don't worry about her not eating/drinking. Budgie pairs actually co-parent their babies, so the male Budgie feeds the babies and lays on the babies just as often as the female does usually, and the male Budgie also feeds the female so that she doesn't have to leave the nest-box. So these are the things you're not seeing them do.

It's good you have a Mineral Block in with her; if you get to a grocery store or Walmart, a pet shop, etc., you should also buy her a Cuttlebone and hang it inside of the cage along with the Mineral Block, as having both helps to ensure that the female is getting enough Calcium and that she won't become Egg-Bound, which is usually the result of the female being Calcium-deficient. Also, feeding her some Egg-Food in a separate little food dish is also a very good idea along with both the Cuttlebone and the Mineral Block; you can either buy a bag of commercially sold Egg-Food at any Petco for $9.99, or you can make it yourself by cooking some eggs (scrambled basically) and then also grinding the entire eggshell up to a fine powder and then mixing the ground shell in with the egg. I always chop the scrambled egg up into little, tiny bits (this is what the commercially-sold Egg-Food looks like, little tiny bits of egg and shell) and then mix in the ground-up shell. You cannot offer your female Budgie too much Calcium before, during, and after she lays a clutch of eggs, as well as throughout the entire time she and the male are feeding and raising the babies. The bodies of Female Budgies take a beating and are extremely stressed throughout the egg-laying/baby raising process, and it's not at all unusual for the female (and sometimes the male) to lose weight throughout the process, and become malnourished. So offering her both a Cuttlebone and a dish of Egg-Food along with the Mineral Block will not only help to keep her Calcium levels up, but also keep her overall weight up and keep her nourished.

****As already mentioned, you do not want for these two to get into a constant cycle of breeding, or even of laying infertile/fertile eggs. After you get through this entire cycle, meaning all of the baby chicks are fully weaned and have come out of the nest-box and are eating only solid food on their own, you need to immediately remove the nest-box, along with anything inside of the cage that can be used as a nest or considered "nesting material", meaning any bedding, wood chips, any towels, blankets, etc., or any crumpled up paper/newspaper, as both the nest-box and any nesting materials can trigger the females hormones, which can cause her to lay eggs, whether she's with a male or not. Budgies have a habit of laying clutch after clutch after clutch if you don't break the cycle, which sometimes means putting the male and female in separate cages that are sitting next to each other, if nothing else you try works to stop the egg-laying.

****Don't be surprised if after these chicks are all weaned and you have removed the nest-box and nesting material, you find another newly laid egg in the bottom of the cage or in a food dish, etc. IF YOU FIND ANOTHER EGG LAID AFTER YOU HAVE ALREADY REMOVED THE NEST-BOX, DO NOT PUT THE NEST-BOX BACK IN!!!! As far as you're concerned that nest-box should never go back inside that cage again. What you do need to do if you find another egg laid inside of the cage somewhere is:

#1) Remove the egg from the cage immediately and either boil it in water for 20 minutes or put it in the freezer overnight, and then after the egg cools-down or comes back up to room temperature, simply lay it in the bottom of the cage (boiling is better because you can do it quickly and get the egg back into the bottom of the cage quickly)...DO NOT PUT ANY TYPE OF NESTING-MATERIAL IN THE CAGE FOR THE EGG TO LAY ON, JUST PUT THE EGG DOWN ON TOP OF THE GRATE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE CAGE!
#2.) You'll need to either boil or freeze each additional egg she lays immediately after finding it, and then put each one back inside the cage, right on the grate on the floor. If any of the eggs break or even crack at all, just throw them away immediately.
#3) Allow the female to lay on the already boiled/frozen eggs for as long as she wants to, they aren't going to hatch and they won't rot if you boiled them, so you need to allow her to lay on them until she herself realizes that they are not going to hatch and she becomes bored with them. Then as soon as you don't see her laying on the eggs in the bottom of the cage anymore, then you can just throw them all away. (REMEMBER that the female usually doesn't start laying on any eggs until at least 2 eggs are laid, if not 3 eggs are laid, so don't be surprised if you don't see her laying on the first egg or even the first two eggs you find and boil, as that's perfectly normal. She'll start laying on them when she wants to.

Hopefully that will be enough to knock them out of breeding season, but if you find that even after you go through this entire process, the female gets tired of laying on the eggs that won't hatch and you throw them away, and then she yet again starts laying a third clutch of eggs, then you need to do the exact same process again, boil each egg and put them back in the bottom of the cage, allow her to sit on them until she gets bored, then throw them out...HOWEVER, this is the point where you need to separate the male and female into their own, individual cages with their own toys, food and water dishes, etc., because if they keep breeding over and over and over again like this, that's when the female is in danger of either becoming Egg-Bound or dying from malnutrition or simply from the tremendous stress that this puts on her body.

****Something I forgot to add above...If you are planning on allowing this current clutch to hatch (if they are fertile, often times a pair's first clutch of eggs is actually infertile, as they don't quite have the hang of mating yet), you do need to make sure that you have at least a shallow layer of some type of bedding in the bottom of the nest box, because if you don't, the babies will all end-up with Splayed-Legs, which is extremely difficult to correct after it develops, and requires Avian Vet intervention, otherwise the babies won't be able to ever walk. By keeping a shallow layer of some type of bedding in the bottom of the nest-box, this will ensure that the babies have to keep their legs/feet together instead of them being constantly spread apart on the slick, bare wood or plastic of the nest box. You can use either regular Pine Shaving Bedding (do not use Aspen Bedding, as the fumes/scent is toxic to birds), or better yet is buying a small package of CareFresh Bedding, which is the bedding made from recycled paper. It has no scent, it's soft and won't get in the baby's eyes, etc. And you can buy a good-size package of it from any Walmart for around $6. Don't be surprised if the female and/or the male continually throw the bedding you add out of the nest-box and into the bottom of the cage, or if they pile it up into the corners of the nest-box so that there is no bedding on the middle of the bottom of the nest box...in fact, I pretty much guarantee that they will do this, as they always do. All you have to do is each time you see that the parents have thrown the bedding out of the nest box, either just add a new, shallow layer of it and put the babies/eggs back on top of it, or if it's still clean, you can just pick the bedding the parents threw out of the nest-box and put it back on the bottom of the nest box. You don't need a lot in nest box, just enough to cover the entire bottom...

 

[EllenD]

Something i forgot:

***Even though you're not going to be pulling these babies and hand-feeding them, you will still need to check inside of the nest-box every single day from this point on at least once, to ensure that there is bedding on the bottom of the nest-box, so that you know when an egg has hatched (incubation for a Budgie egg is 21 days, and they lay the eggs 2-3 days apart), so that you can check on the babies to make sure none of them have died so you can remove them if they have, and most importantly so you can check to ensure that the baby's crops are full and they are ALL being fed by the parents. YOU WILL NOT CAUSE THE PARENTS TO STOP LAYING ON THE EGGS OR FEEDING THE BABIES BY TOUCHING THE EGGS/BABIES, THAT'S A HUGE MYTH THAT IS JUST TOTALLY UNTRUE! In fact, you're probably going to also want to handle each baby every single day for at least 15-30 minutes a day, so that they are hand-tamed, as hand-feeding a baby bird isn't what tames them, but rather handling them every day and interacting with them, talking to them while you're holding them, etc. is what tames them. You should start handling each baby at no earlier than 2 weeks old, and no later than 3 weeks old!!! If you wait to start handling them every day until they are 4 weeks old, then chances are that they will not tame well. And I just don't like people who are doing this handling chicks that are younger than 2 weeks old, simply because of how tiny and fragile they are...I always pull my chicks to hand-feed them at 2 weeks old, but waiting until they are 3 weeks old is fine, so I'd recommend that you wait to start handling until each one hits 3 weeks old, so you'll have to write down a log with a description of each baby and their hatch-date, so you know when each one hits 3 weeks old and you can then start handling them, as they will all be at least 2 days apart in age. And the best way to check the nest-box each day to put new bedding in, to check on the eggs/babies, and to handle the babies, is to wait until both of the parents have left the nest-box to eat/drink, and then use a piece of thick cardboard or something similar to block-off the entrance to the nest-box to keep them out. Then once you're done doing everything you need to do each day, then just remove the cardboard and shut the lid to the nest-box.

 

[Sunnytheparakeet]

Thank you so so so much for your response!! I just found out from my neighbor that she has laid two eggs prior to the one she has now. So she laid a total of three eggs. One was destroyed and the other I was told that she broke it (not sure why). Your response is so helpful and thanks again!